AUSTELL, Ga. — Another transgender teen has taken his own life, leaving behind a suicide note describing sexual trauma and alleged bullying by family members.
Zander Mahaffey, 15, of Austell, Ga., died Sunday, leaving behind a suicide note on his Tumblr blog, in which he declares, “I am a boy, even if the (world) doesn’t see me as one. But I know in my heart I am a boy.”
In the lengthy note, Zander blamed his disabled mother, calling her an “abusive piece of shit” — “I want her to know she murdered her son. I want her to know that she is the reason I’m dead.”
Zander also wrote that he had been raped when he was younger.
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“I know there’s going to be people hurt and devastated by this. And I’m so, so, sorry about that. I don’t know what else to say. I’m just so tired, I’m so tired and I just want to go to sleep,” he wrote.
In his letter, Zander also asks friends that if there are any memorials, “make sure my right name and pronouns are used,” a last wish that was ignored by his family, who used his birth name and female pronouns in his obituary and, reportedly, at his funeral on Wednesday, and his gravesite marker.
[ad]Friends have since launched memorials and a blog in his memory, using the hashtag #HisNameWasZander.
Zander’s story is similar to Leelah Alcorn, the 17-year-old transgender girl from Ohio who killed herself in December by stepping into oncoming traffic on a nearby interstate, attracting national headlines and memorials around the world.
Leelah also left a suicide note on Tumblr, calling for her death to “mean something.”
Editor’s Note: If you or a young person you know is LGBT and thinking about suicide, please call The Trevor Lifeline at 1-866-488-7386. For adults over 24, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
